Many of us, if not all have heard of the cloud and have used it in one way or the other. but when you think of the cloud, or where it is located, what comes to mind? Well before now, I pictured the actual cloud and thought that's where all my files were stored. I didn’t even know at the time that Netflix uses the services of the cloud to bring us all the movies we enjoy. That has now changed after taking the ‘Cloud: Executive Briefing’ course on Pluralsight by Simon Allardice (who is a great teacher, by the way). Now I’m delighted to share with you some of the things I learned.

‘The cloud’ unlike some of us think, can be used on different levels (personally or individually, as a team, as an organization, and also as a consumer). It is also used by different people, in different fields, for different things. And so it means different things to different people. If you asked someone like me (before I took this course) what the cloud is, I would say “it is a really cool aspect of technology that enables you to store and/or backup your files away from your device, in a way that you can have access to it on various other devices whenever you want it”. The answer to an IT professional or a software developer will be different because they use it for more than just storage and backup. Although storage and backup were possible before the cloud by the use of hard drives, for example, the cloud helps make this process faster (you don’t have to physically connect your device to the hard drive every time you want to access your file). It is cheaper to use (you don’t have to buy or repair hard drives). It is more convenient (you have software on your devices that allows your files to auto-sync. You only have to have the internet). The cloud also gives more features that we could not normally do before (automatically syncing your files to your other devices).

I’ve learned that no matter what you use the cloud for, the benefits it gives are similar. Let me list them.

1. Speed
2. Cost
3. Convenience
4. More features

HOW DOES THE CLOUD WORK?

There are a lot of companies that provide cloud services (which gives you access to the cloud) and there are a lot more that make use of the cloud to provide you with their own services. Some of these companies focus on individual users and some on other organizations. Some of them are; Apple iCloud, Adobe Creative Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, VMWare Cloud, Dropbox, Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Pandora, Zoom, Shopify, MailChimp, GitLab, Lookout, Intercom, Uptake, and countless others.

Before the Cloud, people, organizations, used to have their own hardware, servers, storage, networking, for storing data, computing resources used for doing whatever it is they do. These (hardware, servers, etc.) are still important today even with the emergence of the cloud, except all the hardware components are owned by large tech organizations e.g.; Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc. These organizations have built and staffed data centers in dedicated buildings, sometimes entire complexes of buildings full of computing hardwares, servers, hard drives, networking hardwares, cooling systems, connections to the internet, backups for power failures, and so on. They do this for the use of the public. Anyone can use a part of the resources in these data centers for a price. That’s why you pay some money to use Apple iCloud storage, Netflix, and others. These data centers also have management softwares and automation which allows the public to access the resources available in the datacenters through the internet.

There are some qualities common to all cloud services, some of which you know and some of which you don’t:

1. They all use the internet. Not necessarily at every point, but they depend on the internet to function.
2. It uses third-party hardware.
3. It is self-service and on-demand. You do not need any third party or staff to use Google Cloud or Apple iCloud for example. And you get what you need when you need it for a price.
4. It makes use of pooled resources. Which allows a lot more people to use the servers and hardware at the same time while ensuring efficiency.

There is a lot more to discuss about the Cloud, but I’ll stop here for now. Make sure you read my next post to know what category of cloud services that your cloud service company provides you with.